Trump administration to spend $1 billion on ‘offensive’ hacking operations

The Trump administration, through the Department of Defense, plans to spend $1 billion over the next four years on what it calls “offensive cyber operations.” The provision in Trump’s landmark One Big Beautiful Bill does not say what those “offensive Read More …

Taking SHELLTER: a commercial evasion framework abused in the wild

Elastic Security Labs is observing multiple campaigns that appear to be leveraging the commercial AV/EDR evasion framework, SHELLTER, to load malware. SHELLTER is marketed to the offensive security industry for sanctioned security evaluations, enabling red team operators to more effectively Read More …

Mysterious hacking group Careto was run by the Spanish government

More than a decade ago, researchers at antivirus company Kaspersky identified suspicious internet traffic of what they thought was a known government-backed group, based on similar targeting and its phishing techniques. Soon, the researchers realized they had found a much Read More …

Chinese police put 3 U.S. operatives on wanted list over cyberattacks

Police authorities in Harbin, in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, said on Tuesday that they are pursuing three operatives affiliated with the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) over suspected cyberattacks against China. The Harbin public security bureau said that the three Read More …

SideWinder targets the maritime and nuclear sectors with an updated toolset

Last year, Kaspersky researchers published an article about SideWinder, a highly prolific APT group whose primary targets have been military and government entities in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, and Nepal. In the article, they described activities that had mostly happened Read More …

US suspends offensive cyber operations against Russia

The US has suspended operations and planning for offensive cyber operations against Russia, a senior US official told CNN. The suspension is “a major blow,” the official said, especially since planning for such operations takes time and research to carry Read More …

Spyware maker Paragon confirms US government is a customer

Israeli spyware maker Paragon Solutions confirmed to TechCrunch that it sells its products to the U.S. government and other unspecified allied countries. Paragon’s executive chairman John Fleming said in a statement to TechCrunch on Tuesday that “Paragon licenses its technology Read More …

Meta’s WhatsApp says spyware company Paragon targeted users in two dozen countries

An official with Meta Platforms’ (META.O), opens new tab popular WhatsApp chat service said Israeli spyware company Paragon Solutions had targeted scores of its users, including journalists and members of civil society. The official said on Friday that WhatsApp had Read More …

Israeli spyware startup Paragon acquired by U.S.-based private equity fund for up to $900M

Israeli offensive cyber company Paragon will be acquired by the U.S.-based private equity fund AE Industrial Partners for an initial payment of $500 million, with an additional $400 million contingent on meeting business milestones. Despite the acquisition, Paragon will remain Read More …

APT trends report Q3 2024

In the second half of 2022, a wave of attacks from an unknown threat actor targeted victims with a new type of attack framework that we dubbed P8. The campaign targeted Vietnamese victims, mostly from the financial sector, with some Read More …